


Save Tonight

by jayasgoggles



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gift Exchange, M/M, SHEITH - Freeform, Shalasquad gift exchange, allurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 05:01:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13240968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jayasgoggles/pseuds/jayasgoggles
Summary: Suddenly, the first comforting memory he'd had all day coursed through his mind and he approached the Coran with the composure and purpose of a leader."Coran?""Yes?""You don't have any of that Nunvill laying around, do you?"





	Save Tonight

**Author's Note:**

> My gift to Ester for the Shalasquad gift exchange!
> 
> Based on their favorite song of all time: "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eye Cherry

Shiro was pacing the castle corridor nervously. He felt like his world was crashing and there was nothing he could do.

Thinking of his decision left him full of regret and anxiety.

 

_How could I let him go like that?_

 

Dizziness flooded his body, he wanted to throw up. His tremors were worse than they had been in a long time, all day his hands had been shaking and his prosthetic would flicker like it was short-circuiting.

 

He flinched at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. He sighed with relief as he realized the footsteps belonged to Coran.

 

Suddenly, the first comforting memory he'd had all day coursed through his mind and he approached the Coran with the composure and purpose of a leader.

 

"Coran?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"You don't have any of that Nunvill laying around, do you?"

 

* * *

 

The only thing Keith could bear to do was stare at his blade. As of tomorrow, it would be his only possession, not that he would need much else.

 

He was so lost in thought he didn't notice a figure enter the room.

 

"'Sup marmorite?" It was Lance.

 

Keith let out a startled gasp and looked up quickly. "Lance you scared the shit out of me!"

 

"Woah! T.M.I Keith!" He teased. "But tomorrow is a big day, you don't wanna face it with shit in your boxers!"

 

"Oh, ha ha." Keith mocked. "What do you want?"

 

"To tell you that your team wants to hang out with you while you're still here?"

 

Keith shrugged and stood up. He followed Lance out the door.

 

* * *

 

Shiro knocked on Keith's door, holding a handwritten note. He worried throughout his last day of training for the Kerberos mission because of it.

 

"Keith! Keith! Are you ok, Keith?! I got your note and I-" The door opened.

 

Keith was standing there, with sad eyes and a bittersweet smile. He stood there for a moment before embracing Shiro tightly and muffling something indistinct into his chest. Shiro wrapped his arms around Keith and returned the embrace. This was different from the way they usually hugged, it want a bad difference, or at least it wouldn’t be under any other circumstance. In this context, it was painfully sad.

 

Once they reluctantly pulled away from each other, Keith looked up at him with his starry indigo eyes and Shiro’s heart broke. It finally set in how far away he would be and much he would miss Keith. He knew no matter how many planets and stars he would see in while traveling to the edge of the solar system, the galaxies in those eyes would always be the most beautiful thing he’d ever see. He was to lost in them to say anything, he wanted to cry.

 

Keith looked down and stepped back.

 

“Come in Shiro, there’s something I think you should see.”

 

He felt confused and concerned but slowly stepped into the room. When he did his eyes widened and he had to actively prevent his jaw from dropping.

 

The lights were off but room had a warm orange glow to it. Keith had set up hanging lights, and a small table on the floor with several battery operated plastic candles scattered across it. On the table were two paper bowls filled with stove top ramen noodles and two cans of off brand grape soda.

 

Keith pulled the pillow from both the dorm bunks, placed them on the floor and motioned for Shiro to sit. He complied.

 

They sat down on the pillows and simply stared at each other with a deep look of melancholic adoration in their eyes, both speechless.

 

Shiro was the first to break the silence.

 

“Keith, you didn’t have to do this!” He said, smiling. “Where did you get these lights? And did you actually make ramen on the stove?”

 

“Only the finest for my astronaut boyfriend! I’d get a bottle of wine but I don’t feel like getting expelled tonight!” he laughed briefly before taking a deep, shaky breath. “Besides, you’ve got a big day tomorrow...”

 

“Keith I…” He could sense the oncoming tension between them.

 

“I just wanted to…” Keith couldn’t hold on his pain any longer, he began to cry, trying to speak between sobs.

 

“Keith, please don’t cry! It’s ok, I’m here!” he grabbed his hand under the table and held it tight.

 

Keith used his free hand to wipe his eyes and nose, took a deep breath and spoke.

 

“I just wanted to give you a good final night on earth, something you can save in your memory.”

 

“You say that like I’m never gonna come back.”

 

“You know the risks, Shiro. You know them better than anyone.” His tone was grave.

 

“Keith, I _promise_ I’ll come back to you, no matter what.”

 

Keith gave a small smile “I’m gonna hold you to that, ya’know?”

 

“I’ll let you hold me anytime.” Shiro joked.

 

“Hey, at least let us eat this gourmet dinner I made first!”

 

They laughed for a moment, still holding hands under the table.

 

“I love you, Keith.”

 

The words made Keith’s indigo eyes light up and sparkle, but not before his face turned bright red.

 

“I love you too, Shiro.”

 

They were met with silence again, but this silence was comfortable. The two indulged in the silence for a good while before Shiro spoke again.

 

“Let’s eat, I don’t want your gourmet dinner to get cold.”

 

“You’d eat it anyway.” Keith teased.

 

“I would.”

 

They ate the ramen in the soft orange light of the room, cracking jokes and remembering stories and feelings about each other and their time together in the barracks, classes, lunch hours and of course elsewhere. They recalled all the times they wandered into the desert looking at stars. They talked about Keith’s plans to build a hoverbike after graduation. The remembered sparring sessions and Matt teasing them about being a couple before they started dating and how proud Shiro was when Keith shattered his record in the simulator. But, of course, they mostly talked about all the things they’d miss about each other.

 

Still, they eventually fell tired.

 

“You don’t have to spend the night if you don’t want to.” Keith offered with an anxious tone to his voice.

 

“I wouldn’t want to spend my last night on earth any other way.”

 

Keith’s eyes lit up again, and it gave Shiro a harsh reminder of exactly how he’d miss him.

 

They grabbed the pillows they were sitting on and climbed under the covers of the lower bunk. They held each other close, both solemnly feeling the warmth of their partner for what they feared would be the last time. They were nearly asleep when Keith spoke.

 

“I’m gonna miss you so much.” He whispered.

 

“I know, I’ll miss you too, so goddamn much.” Shiro responded.

 

“Please come home soon.”

 

Shiro’s eyes widened and then softened, “Of course.”

 

He kissed Keith on the forehead and with that they drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

These memories filled Shiro’s heart with nostalgia as he set up the little blue lights Coran gave him. Decorating Keith’s room to the closest possible rendition of his Garrison dorm that night.

 

* * *

 

Keith sat in the common area of the castle surrounded by his teammates, but somehow he managed to feel extremely alone. He observed the room in silence.

 

Lance was hopelessly flirting with Allura, she brushed him off but there was a faint blush on her cheeks and something told him that Lance might have a shot. Pidge and Hunk were talking about the logistics of a solo mission she was going to go on in a couple of days. She was going to get back to finding her family, particularly Matt. They were spitting science lingo so fast no human with a normal processing speed could understand them. Coran was in the kitchen working on dinner for the team, but Keith wasn't excited to sit back at the table where they all bonded over a food fight, where they had so many meals together, where diplomatic meetings were held, where Keith interrupted one because saving the universe felt impossible without the only man who ever saw that Keith was worth saving.

 

Now, once again, that man was nowhere to be found. However, this time it was by choice. That’s what hurt the most.

 

Keith was far too deep in his own misery to hear anything the Paladins were saying, until he heard a hurried and mildly enthusiastic voice from the couch. It was Hunk.

 

“I need to go help Coran with something, I’ll be right back.” He said making a B-line for the kitchen.

 

“Yeah, I gotta go too.” Keith said, pushing himself away from the wall and moving towards the door.

 

At that everyone screamed “no” in unison.

 

“Why?” Keith said, raising an irritated eyebrow.

 

“Because we want to spend time with you before you go, who knows how long you’ll be gone for. We could never see you again.” Allura responded, nearly pleading.

 

“I know,” he said gravely “I know the risks. But you were proven wrong Allura. Voltron _can_ go on without me, and Voltron will.”

 

The team was rendered speechless as he turned to leave.

 

“Good luck guys, I’ll miss you.”

 

The doors closed.

 

* * *

 

Keith arrived at the door to his room on the verge of tears. All he wanted to do was collapse on his bed and sleep until the morning came and he had to leave. But when the door opened the feelings of sorrow and desire to shut all living beings out simply melted. There was Shiro, setting up little Altean lights on a small table in the center of his room. He looked up abruptly, blushing.

 

“Keith I-”

 

Keith just ran up to him and nearly tackled him to the ground with a loving embrace, then proceeded to pepper his face with kisses.

 

“I guess you caught on.” Shiro finished with a laugh.

 

“I guess I did.” Keith softy responded.

 

They kissed briefly, still caught up in a moment of nostalgic euphoria. However, when the kiss broke reality set in. Keith was leaving the team, he was going of to fight the war with less protection and far more risk than any of the paladins. He might never come back.

 

This time it was Shiro who cried. He couldn’t fight it anymore, he began to sob into Keith’s shoulder, holding him tightly. Keith held him close, stroked his head and let him cry, he knew better than anyone that Shiro needed that release. He cried and wailed and said Keith’s name over and over until he simply didn’t have the energy to continue.

 

“Shiro… It’s ok, I’m here.”

 

“I know…” he whispered between a few exasperated sobs. “But tomorrow you’ll be gone.”

 

“I know, but I’m here now and we have until the sun rises on Olkarion tomorrow morning.”

 

“But...”

 

“Shiro, let’s not worry about tomorrow right now. Let’s save tonight, ok?”

 

Shiro nodded in agreement, and Keith gave him a contagious smile that could break a million hearts in an instant.

 

But somehow it managed to heal Shiro’s completely.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Hollidays friendo!!
> 
> All the best In 2018


End file.
